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Eesti Keel Estonian
Family	Sub-family	Language of	Script
Finno-Ugric	Baltic-Finnic	Estonia European Union	Extended Latin

This page will discuss Estonian conjunctions. They are grouped by the function they give the sentence. Conjunctions in Estonian are just about always preceded by a comma, this is important in Estonian to determine the intended meaning.

Contents 1 And 2 Because, So 2.1 Consequence, Reason 2.2 Reason, Consequence 3 But 4 That 5 Or

And

And in Estonian is ja.

Examples:

...ja ma tahan minema Tartusse ka
...and I want to go to Tartu too.

Ma ei tea, kui ma saan süüa ka mu söök ja su söök.
I don't know if I can eat both my food and your food.

Because, So

In Estonian, there is four ways to give a reason and consequence to a statement. They are: sest, seepärast, tänu sellele and seetõttu.

Consequence, Reason

To use this formation in Estonian, you use the conjunction sest.

something happened, sest why it happened

In English, this would generally be translated as because.

Examples:

Ma saan õppida eesti keelt, sest mul on palju vaba aega.
I can study Estonian because I have a lot of free time

Mul ei olnud kodutööd, sest mu koer sõi selle ära.
I don't have my homework because my dog ate it (all up).

Autole tuleb alla panna talverehvid, sest teed on libedad.
Winter tires must be fitted to cars, because the roads are slippery.

Reason, Consequence

The opposite to the above formation uses the other words mentioned: seepärast, tänu sellele and seetõttu.

reason something happened, seepärast what came of it
reason something happened, tänu sellele what came of it
reason something happened, seetõttu what came of it

Ok, so the difference?

• seepärast is a neutral "so".
• tänu sellele (literally: thanks to) is when the consequence is something positive.
• seetõttu (means: due to) is when the consequence is something negative.

Some examples are below of how to use the examples from the section above, only in reverse.
Examples:

Mul on palju vaba aega, tänu sellele ma saan õppida eesti keelt.
I have lots of free time, so (fortunately) I can study Estonian.

Mu koer sõi mu kodutöö ära, seetõttu mul seda ei olnud.
My dog ate my homework, so (unfortunately) I don't have it.

Teed on libedad, seepärast tuleb autole alla panna talverehvid.
The roads are slippery, so winter tires must be fitted to cars.

But

In Estonian, the word but is aga or kuid (the exact same meaning).

Examples:

Lähen Tartusse hommikul rongiga, aga kaotasin pileti ära.
I am going on the train in the morning to Tartu, but I lost my ticket.

That

That in the sense of I know that he is scared of you is said as et in Estonian. It follows before the next statement and always has a comma before it.

Examples:

Ma tean, et ta on hetkel linnas.
I know that she is in town at the moment.

Or

Or in Estonian is või. It is placed between the two options in the sentence.

Examples:

Ma tean, et me läheme kas rongiga või bussiga.
I know that we are either going by bus or by train.

Estonian pages
Introduction · Adpositions · Cases · Conjunctions · Lexicon · Numbers · Modal Verbs · Pronouns · Verbs · Vocabulary

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